#relating to n!hector is fine and understable ofc

[beevean]

I'll be honest: in the past year, N!Hector grew on me. I understood that what I hate about him isn't the character, but the narrative.

Hector in S2 starts off as remarkably similar to Hector pre-CV3. He's alienated by mankind: he had a difficult childhood and didn't have the chance to live among fellow humans. He loves animals far more than he loves people - one of my favorite scenes of his is when he compares vampires to animals as a compliment. He has strong morals that prevent him from accepting mindless slaughter. He's overall a nice person in a cruel environment. It's all there. The big difference, personality-wise, is that he wants to cull mankind and turn it into cattle, while game Hector is absolutely against any form of harm against humans. However, I don't mind because I always wanted to see a villain Hector lol, and even that could have lead to character development!

Could have.

Because the biggest issue of N!Hector is that the writing prevents him from having any agency, which goes against the whole point of Hector who seeks agency.

Hector is the one who grew apart from Dracula and Isaac. Hector is the one who begged his Lord to stop his slaughter. Hector is the one who decided to flee, and live a human life. Hector is the one who decided to take revenge on Isaac. Hector is the one who, at the end, realized that the Curse affected him, and broke free. Hector as a character is all about independence and freedom.

N!Hector is the complete opposite. He gets manipulated. He gets lied to. He gets beaten. He gets tortured. He gets dehumanized, literally turned into a puppy. He gets raped by deception. He suffers, suffers, suffers.

For what purpose?

Nothing. The narrative paints him as a pathetic manchild, and humiliates him in any way it can, just because.

And what is the end result? How does he change from all of these horrible experiences?

Well, he does gain an ounce of agency in S4! He wants to resurrect his first master, the one who lied to him and wanted to use him to kill innocents. Oh, and he bonds with his torturer. And N!Isaac pities him because he never had any agency in the first place. Hector's big badass moment in S4 only serves N!Isaac, the darling babyboy of the narrative.

The horrible things N!Hector goes through aren't there to build his character. He doesn't even come off as a character in S3. He's just a chew toy to feel bad for, except I didn't even feel bad for him anymore, because I was sick and tired of watching his tortures being outright fetishized. That's the thing: N!Hector is nothing more than a victim, perpetually passive, massively disrespected by every character than knows him, and we are meant to either think that he's stupid and deserved what he got, or get turned on. There is nothing there to cheer for.

I also love the idea of Hector not feeling human - in the MF manga, he often compares himself to a demon, because that's what he was made to believe, that he's cursed, inhuman, evil. He has Dracula's magic flowing into him and he used it to commit atrocities. He has to struggle against himself to accept his own nature. He's flowing with self-loathing in both versions, and I want him to learn how to love himself, because he's a compelling character! Also, yes, it makes sense for him to be naive enough to be manipulated (by Dracula in particular, since Hector should care enough about the only person who showed him any modicum of "love"). I just personally despise NFCV's writing and how it completely wasted a good character because Ellis felt particularly petty towards him.

I want to like N!Hector too, but I can only like him if I divorce him from the horrible story he was put in and incorporate him into my headcanons regarding game Hector. Including the fact that he was used and manipulated by a person he trusted because he didn't know any better, and he carries the trauma even after he escaped... but the important part for me is that he had the strength to realize he lived in an abusive environment and got the courage to change his life for the better. N!Hector deserves to be a character.

(as a bonus, I squirt blood from my eye every time I read someone say that N!Hector deserved to be turned into a pet because of his original plan of culling mankind. Yes, that was horrible of him and he should have organically grew out of that mentality. But no, what he went through doesn't even remotely match his "crimes". Not when N!Isaac was always painted as the more evil of the two and the story bend itself backwards to give him what he wanted)

Okay genuine question exactly how different is Hector in CoD compared to NFCV?

Because I’m gonna be completely honest I still very much adore him, I especially relate to his trauma, but I’ve seen quite a few people throughout my time saying Hector got the worse treatment. I’m not sure if just because of the weird like SA that was made to be romantic or if they completely fucked him over in the sense of what he was supposed to be… But I genuinely related to his distrust in humans and how he felt closer to animals more than anyone else and how that ultimately lead to him being abused and dehumanized.

Idk dog brain Hector lives in my head rent free and not in the gross SA way but more in the “I was never treated as a person so I don’t feel like a person way”

I guess I’m more so asking if I can still project my dog brain trauma onto CoD Hector or if that aspect was completely made up for NFCV